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Tuesday, 12 March 2013

West Brom 2 - Swansea 1 Stats and Chalkboards

Obviously Lamah's disallowed goal was the main talking point for the game but that has been done to death elsewhere.

Away from that, this was a fairly even game with Swansea having the best of the first half (7 attempts vs. 5) and West Brom the better of the 2nd (9 attempts vs 4).

With Moore now scoring in two league games in a row, it'll be interesting to see if he starts against Arsenal leaving Michu to play in the attacking midfielder role.

Michu's strength certainly seems to be playing behind the striker and coming on to chances and certainly is more involved in the game when playing further back. The chalkboards below comparing the number of passes received by Michu in the West Brom game compared to the previous game against Newcastle show he received the ball almost twice as often on Saturday.

Michu also won 9 of 11 Aerial Duels v West Brom, another reason to have him playing deeper

Even when playing as the main striker, Michu still occasionally drops back and has never been playing in the same kind of selfless role that Graham had last season for example (where he was usually get 10-15 touches a game) as this season's side is more fluid than that under Rodgers.

What happens in the summer may be in part determined by whether De Guzman stays, but it'll be interesting to see if Swansea really push the boat out on a striker and whether than means there could be even more to come from Michu next season as he goes back to his preferred position.